This is rather special. Though it sounds too much like the language
of advertising to say it, this does have very good claims to present
us with the first solo works for cello played on the world’s oldest
surviving cello.
The German cellist
Julius Berger has performed and recorded across much of the
repertoire for his instrument; he has been justly praised
for recordings that range from Boccherini to Cage, from Schumann
to Gubaidulina. Here he turns his attention to music from
the very beginnings of the instrument’s history. Cellos were
being made by the mid 1500s; one of the first great craftsmen
to make cellos (and the earliest whose name we know) was Andrea
Amati, born about 1505 in Cremona. It is on one of Amati’s
instruments that Berger performs, an instrument which was
created in response to a commission (for 38 stringed instruments)
Amati received from Charles IX of France in 1566. This specific
instrument’s history can be traced – with gaps – from then
until now. It is an instrument with an extraordinary beauty
of tone, particularly in the lower strings.
Here this Amati
cello is deployed in performances of ricercari by the two
earliest writers for solo cello whose work survives – Gianbattista
Degli Antonii and Domenico Gabrielli. Both composers were
born in Bologna and both largely made their careers there.
Both benefited from the patronage of Prince Francesco II d’Este
(1660-1694) of Modena, a music lover who played the cello
himself.
Antonii was a
choirmaster and organist, a member of the Accademia Filarmonica
in Bologna. He also played and taught the cello and his collection
of ricercari was published in 1687, with a dedication to Francesco
II.
Gabrielli (who
seems to have been unrelated to the more famous Gabriellis
of Venice) was also a member of the Accademic Filarmonica
– indeed he became its President in 1683. as a composer he
wrote operas and sacred music and a good deal of chamber music.
He was famous as one of the first virtuosi of the cello. His
ricercari for the instrument survive in manuscript (preserved
in the Biblioteca Estense in Modena).
These early solo
works for the cello occasionally frustrate and abundantly
excite (for me delight far outweighs the occasional stretch
of relative banality). Of Antonii’s ricercari one suspects
that some were primarily teaching aids or pieces designed
to demonstrate the capabilities of the instrument; sometimes
relatively extended scalar passages defy even Berger’s ability
to make the music genuinely gripping. But the best – I was
particularly struck by nos. 4, 9 (with several unexpected
leaps) and 10 (which has something of the kind of multi-voiced
writing we associate with Bach’s later writing for unaccompanied
cello or violin) – are eminently good listening and certainly
deserve to be better known.
Gabrielli’s seven
ricercari are rather more various in design and emotion, more
obviously intended for public performance. Rhythmic patterns
shift and coalesce, double and triple stops produce some subtle
and complex effects. Each of these pieces has its own distinctive
charms and some of them pack a fair expressive punch.
This CD has obvious
value as historical documentation. But it is more than just that.
There may be one or two longueurs in the work by Antonii, but
for the most part this is music which remains thoroughly alive,
thoroughly capable of speaking to us now. This is especially so
when played with the technique, intelligence and vivacity which
Julius Berger brings to the task and when heard (in well recorded
sound) on a fascinating instrument. He luxury – and informativeness
– of the packaging is an additional bonus. This CD has already
tempted me into many repeat listenings – and it gets more fascinating
with each hearing!
Glyn Pursglove
see also Review
by Brian Wilson
Julius Berger
(cello) 
